"2. That before every fresh humble servant she shall be obliged to appear with a new stomacher at the least. "3. That no one be actually married until she hath the child-bed pillows, &c., ready stitched, as likewise the mantle for the boy quite finished. "These laws, if I mistake not, would effectually restore the decayed art of needlework, and make the virgins of Great Britain exceedingly nimble-fingered in their business." CHAPTER XXIII. NEEDLEWORK ON BOOKS. "And often did she look On that which in her hand she bore, In velvet bound and broider'd o'er-- Her breviary book." Marmion. "Books are ours, Within whose silent chambers treasure lies Preserved from age to age-- These hoards of truth we can unlock at will." Wordsworth. Deep indeed are our obligations for those treasures which "we can unlock at will:" treasures of far more value than gold or gems, for they oftentimes bestow that which gold cannot purchase--even forgetfulness of sorrow and pain. Happy are those who have a taste for reading and leisure to indulge it. It is the most beguiling solace of life: it is its most ennobling pursuit. It is a magnificent thing to converse with the master spirits of past ages, to behold them as they were; to mingle thought with thought and mind with mind; to let the imagination rove--based however on the authentic record of the past--through dim and distant ages; to behold the fathers and prophets of the ancient earth; to hold communion with martyrs and prophets, and kings; to kneel at the feet of the mighty lawgiver; to bend at the shrine of the eternal poet; to imbibe inspiration from the eloquent, to gather instruction from the wise, and pleasure from the gifted; to behold, as in a glass, all the majesty and all the beauty of the mighty PAST, to revel in all the accumulated treasures of Time--and this, all this, we have by reading the privilege to do. Imagination indeed, the gift of heaven, may soar elate, unchecked, though untutored through time and space, through Time to Eternity, and may people worlds at will; but that truthful basis which can alone give permanence to her visions, that knowledge which ennobles and purifies and elevates them is acquired from books, whether "Song of the Muses, says historic tale, Science severe, or word of Holy Writ, Announcing immortality and joy."